I recently updated my whitepaper SEO Checklist for Beginners to show small businesses how to get better results from search engine optimization (SEO).

Over the past year or so Google has emphasized certain factors over others when ranking web pages. For example, click through rates make a difference – can you imagine an organic search listing on the first page that does not get clicked much? It happens regularly. Do you think Google is concerned about click through rates for the top ten results for keywords? I do.

Google pays attention to how users interact with their search results like which links get the lowest bounce rates after a user clicks. The bounce rate is the rate at which a search listing is clicked and then the user returns to the search results to click on a different listing (obviously the searcher didn’t find what they were looking for with that initial clicked listing for the keyword). And if Google determines that the listing is not good for the users of that keyword, well you know what happens.

Assets in a business are items controlled by the business that generate revenue. Liabilities are debts and financial obligations owed by the business to third parties. So then:

Equity = Assets – Liabilities

You can evaluate marketing in a similar way… part of marketing is generating revenue while the rest of it is either breaking even or worse, a liability. The question is how to invest in marketing that creates revenue and becomes an asset rather than a liability.

You’ve carefully selected your keywords, incorporated them into your site and content strategically and you have some good links pointing at your site… But Google just isn’t ranking your site near the top. What’s the problem?

Search engines and Google in particular are not as dependent on technical signals as they once were.

More business websites than ever have been optimized to some degree for search rankings, so how does G decide which ones to rank on the first page?

Mediative recently published the results of their latest eye-tracking study where they zeroed in on how users interact with Google search results pages (SERPs) in an effort to identify real opportunities for SEO, PPC and branding especially as it relates to click-through rates. What they found is enlightening and corresponds to what I’m seeing with some of my clients.

Some of you remember the 2005 study known as the Golden Triangle heat map displaying how users interacted with Google SERPs, but people don’t interact with SERPs in the same way today.

Conversion is the fervent goal of every web marketer. Anyone who claims otherwise has either gotten his job description wrong or has too much money to burn.

While working hard towards improving conversion rates of existing websites and landing pages is one thing, it’s a lot better to get things right the first time. Build it right and the results will follow.

This is especially true in the case of a landing page – a single page that carries the responsibility of converting all your advertising dollars into actual revenue – the last runner in the marketing relay race.

Believe it or not, all of these figures were named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year at some time or another. In 2006, the publication named YOU as its annual choice, to reflect the rise of individual content creator on the internet.

In my last post I went into some detail about the SEO problem businesses slip into when using outsourced copywriters for much of their web content. I call them inorganic copywriters because they often have no idea what makes the business really valuable simply because they are not on the inside.

Organic search results are unpaid – the kind everyone craves – and organic SEO means the practice of gaining rank in the natural search results. But today I am suggesting that there is a deeper meaning to organic SEO that is much closer to organic growth – growth from within the organization that results in more productivity and sales.

In an ideal business, effective SEO and online marketing takes place when the people within the organization take ownership of the project. You may have heard of those companies whose people enjoy their jobs, work well together and when they decide to do something together, it gets done!

In the vein of Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck,” – you might be a Business owner who hates marketing (Bowhm). Ok, maybe I’m being a bit extreme and you’re really a business leader who is uncomfortable with marketing (bowiuwm), but that acronym doesn’t roll off the tongue like Bowhm does (pronounced boyeem).

If you are cold, calculated and don’t have an empathetic bone in your body, you might be a Bowhm…

Last year a colleague of mine and I put on a SEO Bootcamp where we covered many different topics from beginner level to pro. One of my topics was optimizing content for conversions. Here’s a video snippet of that piece (the audio isn’t great but adequate):

People love to be wowed perhaps because it catches us by surprise or because it’s rare to behold one totally dedicated to the skill of his/her craft or because we are overwhelmed by the raw passion displayed or because it inspires us to pursue one’s dreams because they are worth the hard work and long wait despite all the naysayers and resistance.

Every Spring for the past three years Google has rolled out a big algo change that “washes” away the unnatural search results from their index. Spring of 2013 brought Penguin 2.0 and a summer full of updates. Spring of ‘12 brought Penguin. Spring of ‘11 brought Panda (technically that was late February but it nearly fits my scheme here). What does Google have for us this Spring?

If you were enjoying good search rankings before any of these updates, but then noticed a big drop afterward, it’s likely that you have not fully recovered yet. And I hate to say this, it’s also unlikely that your site will ever get back to where it was in terms of rankings and traffic from Google.

Transformation can come to a business when their content goes up a level. This is especially true for businesses who must be viewed as authoritative by their prospects or possess expertise during the sales cycle.

You know what happens when a prospect starts asking good questions; it’s like the hunt to get all the details before putting any money down. Here are some ways to evoke the hunt in your prospects.

Credibility should be the pursuit of every business not only for its monetary rewards but also because it is good to pursue and the mark of being the best. The problem is that some businesses do not pursue such high qualities or standards and therefore may not enjoy the same rewards. This post is for those who want to pursue genuine online credibility. Continue reading “Four Secrets To Online Credibility”